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Time for the sprinters to shine? Videos & more from Stage 8 of the 2016 Giro Rosa

It’s been a tough few days for the sprinters, with all those mountains and then a climbing ITT – but today’s Stage 8 was flat, and perfect for the sprint teams… on paper! It ended with a small loop, and a technical finish – Felix Mattis rode the finishing run-in with a camera on his bike – watch it on facebook.

Really technical and tricky final km with a final straight of not even 100 meters. Road maybe 2,5 mt wide. #girorosa

And in that typically women’s cycling style, just because it suited sprint teams on paper, doesn’t mean the peloton were going to let it play out for them. Even though it was a very fast day, with lots of attacks that were caught, a group of nine got away before the midpoint GPM – Alena Amialiusik (Canyon-SRAM), Lauren Kitchen (Hitec), Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Wiggle High5), Lex Albrecht (BePink), Małgorzata Jasińska (Alé Cipollini), Anna Ceoloni (Servetto-Footon), Ana Maria Covrig (Astana), Riejanne Markus (Liv-Plantur) and maybe 1 more rider (it was that kind of live-tweeting day).

With no riders from Rabo-liv, Lotto Soudal and Boels-Dolmans, there were big names to chase… but with no one anywhere near a threat, Boels weren’t bothered… so the group got tantalisingly close to the line, especially when Jasinska, Covrig and Ceoloni escaped with Rozanne Slik or Liv and it to less than 5k to go – could they make it all the way?

Find out in the videos, photos and other media from the stage – and I’ll be editing in more media as I see it – tweet me, or leave a comment if you find things I’ve missed. You can find my previous collections of videos from the race under my Giro Rosa 2016 tag.

One more stage tomorrow, on Elisa Longo Borghini‘s home roads – so although the race profile makes it look sprinty, watch out for the escape artists… and especially ELB! And of course, there’s that disconnect between what the roadbook says, and what will be raced…

@_pigeons_@ConfusedSpider Final climb on sunday is 5km at 8%. 8km downhill. With 8 hairpins. 5km flat along the lake to finish